


Plus One

by blueorangecrush



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Didn't Know They Were Dating, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Oblivious Walnut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-24 04:36:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13206114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueorangecrush/pseuds/blueorangecrush
Summary: City life's pretty awesome.  Casey likes his job, likes the kids he teaches, and he's got a cool apartment with a cool roommate who's fun to hang out with.He knew when he signed the lease that Matt was gay, so why is it bothering him so much that Matt brought someone home?[Non-hockey AU, based on THAT Reddit thread.]





	Plus One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shmorgas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shmorgas/gifts).



> Happy hockey holidays, hon! I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. LOVE YOU. <3
> 
> (Thanks to L. and the other usual suspects for helping me put this together and not giving away the surprise!)
> 
> Things to be aware of: RL wives/girlfriends appear in this, a lot, sometimes with their actual significant others and other times...not so much. Also, there is a scene where a high school student who is legally an adult lies about his age in an attempt to seduce someone older, but he is caught and it doesn't work. If either of those things bother you, you might want to skip this fic.

_Crown Heights - One bedroom for professional or graduate student available in two-bedroom apartment.  Fourth floor walk-up near the 4, 5 trains.  Available June 1.  Must be LGTBQ friendly.  First, last, and security due on landlord approval.  $1100 includes all._

Probably as good as he’s going to get, Casey thinks, and he’s totally in good enough shape to handle the fourth floor walk-up part.  Four years on the Geneseo hockey team ought to have been good for something. 

When he goes to check the place out, it looks okay.  Weird to pay this much for a place – upstate you could rent the entire two-bedroom for this price and it would have an elevator or at least be on a lower floor – but it’ll do.  No signs of roaches or rodents, nothing obviously leaking or broken, it could be a lot worse.  Hell, he’s _lived in_ worse – there are some real slumlords in the upstate college towns, and he had the misfortune of renting from one the summer before his junior year.

The guys who live there, Matt and Mark, seem okay, too.  They went to SUNY Brockport, graduated a year ago, and Matt’s just finishing up his MSW and going to work for the agency he interned at so he can get his clinical hours.  Mark’s still in grad school and apparently has some kind of DJ gig on the side.  But Casey wouldn’t be living with Mark because Mark’s moving in with his girlfriend. 

Casey thinks about Jessie for a moment, wonders if after she graduates he’ll be moving out to live with her.  Too soon to think about that let alone talk about it, he decides.  Instead, he starts talking about Geneseo and the hockey team and finds out that Matt played for the Brockport team.

“Dude, we probably played each other and didn’t even know it!  Well, that settles it, I’m totally good with you living here, we just have to clear it with Jon – that’s the landlord – and everything should be fine.  But I guess I’d better ask, you saw the ad – I’m gay, is that going to be weird?”

“It better not be, my girlfriend’s bi and she’d kick my butt if I had problems with it.  But seriously, even without that it’s totally fine.”

“Cool.  Then let me just text Jon and get him over here so we can do the whole lease signing thing.”

Jon wants to know a few more things before they get down to the lease – yes, Casey’s parents are willing and able to co-sign.  Casey’s going into grad school but he expects to be working too, because he’s in the NYC Teaching Fellows program.  Math.  He was an econ major who got as far as second-semester calculus originally, but that was enough that they were willing to look at him for Math Immersion.

—

Casey gets settled in, goes to class, comes home, studies math, looks for teaching job matches, studies some more, looks for some more jobs, and then goes to class again.  Somewhere in the middle of all of that, Matt’s managed to show Casey around Brooklyn, found him good places to stop for food and coffee and beer, whichever one he needs at any given time.  Well, not that he _needs_ beer, he knows better than to say that, but when it seems like beer would be a good thing.

Mark, the guy who used to live in Casey’s room, comes by every now and then.  Sometimes alone, sometimes with his girlfriend, sometimes with another friend of theirs.  They play games and watch movies and clear out whenever Casey has a paper due, because grad school is behind them but not very far, and besides, if Casey doesn’t do well, he won’t get a job and he won’t be able to pay the rent, and as the original guy on the lease Mark will get sued for the money, and nobody wants that.  So they’re going to let Casey get his work done.

Casey passes the math speciality test - he’s not sure _how,_ but he does - and his advisor encourages him to take a look at the transfer schools as well as middle schools.  “I know a lot of people in Math Immersion go into middle school classrooms, but you seem like you might have a good rapport with the older students.  Maybe look into it, give it a try?”

So Casey does.  And Brownsville takes him.

—

The “kids” at Brownsville, some of them really only three years or so younger than Casey, call him Mr. Z.  

Mr. C was already taken by Cal Clutterbuck, Casey’s assigned mentor teacher.  Casey takes a liking to Cal immediately - he’s funny and sarcastic but at the same time he’s obviously really good at what he does and obviously really concerned for the well-being of the kids he teaches.

They become friends pretty fast - Cal’s always having Casey over for dinner, and even though it’s a bit of a long ride on the LIRR to get to his place it’s worth it.  Tommy, who teaches gym, is there a lot too - apparently his wife and Cal’s wife own a beauty salon together.  Small world.

Small world that Casey’s glad to be part of, and glad to let Matt join in with - Matt starts "tagging along" to dinner at Cal's, and Cal and Cassie don't seem to mind.  

One day at dinner, they end up talking about how some of the kids want to set up a GSA, how it’s weird that Brownsville doesn’t have one already but anyway there’s no time like the present.  And Casey agrees to be the teacher leading it before he really thinks about it.  

Maybe it was for Jessie’s sake, something that would make her happy to know mattered to him.  She does sound happy when he calls to tell her about it.

—

“Hey, Mr. Z! Thanks for doing this for us,” Josh says as the other kids who were at the first GSA meeting trickle out of the classroom.  

Josh has been one of Casey’s favorite students from the beginning.  He’s a bit of a class clown, and sometimes it’s hard to keep him on task, but he’s really smart and he makes the class he’s in more fun for everyone.  

“No problem, glad to.  See you tomorrow, right? _With_ your homework?”

“Yeah, man, with my homework.”  And with that, Josh ran out to catch up with some of his friends.

Casey’s still a little surprised at just how big that meeting had been.  Next time, they might need to use the gym or the cafeteria since they barely fit in his classroom.

When he mentions that to Cal later, Cal reminds him that a lot of kids in transfer schools like Brownsville were bullied in other schools, sometimes for being LGBT.  “And it’s not like Harvey Milk High in Manhattan where it’s the whole reason the school is there, but it’s still something that comes up a lot.  I’m surprised it took this long to get a GSA.”

“If they were being bullied about it, maybe they were scared to actually ask for a group?” Casey asks.

“Yeah.  That makes sense.  You’re pretty smart about this stuff.”

“Thanks!”

—

The old couch in the living room has _got_ to go.

Casey had been thinking that for a while, but when a loose spring rips a fucking hole in his jeans that kind of settles the matter.

Matt comes back from some mentoring trip he’s doing with a group of foster kids, and Casey asks, “You busy?”

“Done for the day, why, what’s up?”

“Let’s go to IKEA.  I want some meatballs and a new fucking couch because that piece of shit just tore my pants.  If you buy the meatballs I’ll buy the couch.”

They get a little carried away.  Matt buys them both big plates of meatballs with the extra meatballs added on, and slices of chocolate cake while he’s at it.  They pick out a couch - one of the futons-on-wheels - and then Casey adds a coffee table to that, and Matt decides to get a chair and ottoman and new TV stand and shelves.

“Hey, lifestyle upgrade - millennials with living room by IKEA, instead of college kids who gave their parents an excuse to replace furniture that’s been around since they were little kids.”

Casey laughs, agreeing.

“I mean, that was _Mark’s_ parents’ old couch, it wasn’t even mine,” Matt adds.  “I almost wish he’d taken it with him when he moved out.”

“My _pants_ wish he had,” Casey fake-grumbles.  “But hey, we have it pretty well organized who bought what so if one of us moves the other can say take your stuff.  Not that I want that to be anytime soon, but you know.”

“Not planning to find a place with your girlfriend and leave me to Craigslist again?” Matt asks.  “I mean, it worked out okay last time, I got _you,_ but -“

“I don’t know,” Casey answers. “Jessie and I - we haven’t talked about that in a while.”

—

“You really love it here, don’t you?” Jessie asks, Friday morning of the spring break she’s come down to visit.

Casey lights up.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I know I just…didn’t know what else to do with myself and needed a job but this, this is what I’m _meant_ to do, working with these kids.  And Brooklyn’s great, too, I’d never really even been to the city that much before but living here is amazing.”

“So you want to stay.  You aren’t thinking of coming back upstate.”  It’s not a question.

“Yeah?”

“I…I don’t know.  I just.  The city isn’t for _me._   And I see you so happy here and I know I’d be miserable and I don’t want to say we should just break up, but what _else_ can we do?  I don’t want to do long distance forever, and I don’t want to live here and it sounds like you don’t want to live anywhere else.”

“I don’t want to leave, no, and I don’t want you to be miserable.  So maybe yeah, maybe we should just let it go before we hate each other about it.”  

Jessie is already packing.  “I’ll just - just get a cab back to Port Authority, just get an early bus back.  I can’t stay here.”

“Jess - I’m sorry.  I really am.”

“I know.  I’m sorry too.”

—

Matt comes home to find Casey standing in the kitchen, aimless, staring out the window.  “Trying to figure out what to cook for Jessie?” he teases.

Casey closes his eyes, slowly.  “Jessie left.  We broke up.”

“Shit.  Shit, that _sucks,_ I’m so sorry.”

Casey shrugs.  “I like it here.  She hates it here.  We’re not compatible.  Nobody did anything _wrong,_ just - it’s not gonna work.”

“Still.  That sucks.  Can I, like, drag you out for some beer, maybe a little food to go with it, or…?”

“Suppose that’s as good as anything.  Dinosaur?”

“You’re on.”

They’re three beers each and almost a pound of Drunken Spicy Shrimp into the evening when Casey remembers an especially annoying part of this whole breaking-up thing.  “Shit.  I have, like, three weddings to go to this summer, this is gonna suck.”

“Why? Weddings are fun, good place to meet new people, eat awesome food, and even if the food sucks and the people are awful it makes a funny story later, right?” Matt asks.

“Well I’m already all RSVPed and shit and it’s not like I can ask Jessie to come anyway even though we’re broken up.  But hey, you don’t seem like you mind weddings, you cool with throwing on a suit and being my plus-one and making sure the little cousins have someone who’ll dance with them and shit?”

“People aren’t gonna be weird about me not being a girl?”

“I don’t care! I’d rather hang out with my awesome roommate than post some desperate personal ad for some girl to fake-date me or whatever.”

“Okay, cool, I’m in.”

—

Casey’s been on Tinder all of three minutes when he sees a familiar face – Sydney, one of the other Math Immersion fellows.  She’s working at Brownsville and doing her grad program at LIU Brooklyn, too.  He swipes right and sends a message: _Hey, not looking to make this weird but don’t want to be rude either.  Good luck out there!_

A couple minutes later he gets a response: _Yeah, obvs not going to hook up with my colleagues!  See you in class._

He doesn’t really feel like looking around on Tinder any more after that.  It’s whatever, seemed like a good idea, everyone who suggested it meant well, but he wasn’t really much for for random hook-ups even in college. And as far as anything serious went, well, when the hell would he have time?

That short exchange with Sydney did seem to serve as an ice breaker though, and they started hanging out more in their classes and on their breaks, walking to the subway together after they got done, and picking each other for group projects.

They head over to Casey’s one afternoon to work on a project.  Matt comes in and Casey waves him over to introduce them.  “Hey, Syd, this is my roommate, Matt.  Matt, this is Sydney – she’s another math fellow at Brownsville.”

“Cool.  Nice meeting you,” Matt says, smiling.

“So, are you a teacher, too?” Sydney asks.

“No.  I’m a social worker.  Graham Windham foster care.”

Sydney nods.  “We have some kids at Brownsville who came out of their school, I think it was JD though, not really foster care.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of overlap there though.  Sometimes we have kids who are in both systems and I’m just glad they can get help in one place and not have to go all over the city or even all over the entire metro area.”

“That makes sense.  Hey, you guys want to order food?  I’ll work better if I eat something.”

Over bowls of chicken curry and big piles of naan bread, they talk about how they ended up here in Brooklyn and in the jobs they have.

Casey answers first.  “Me? Well, I guess I’m the reverse of what happened to a lot of guys I knew.  Some of them started out education majors and discovered they hated it when they got to their student teaching semester, and now they don’t know what they want to do.  I had sort of thought about teaching, but I played sports all through and I didn’t want to give it up, so I was doing finance instead.  And then after junior year I did a summer internship at a bank and it was like, what the hell, why am I even doing this?  And I found out I qualified for this, I had just enough math to teach math here.  And I really love working at Brownsville, you know? The kids are pretty amazing.”

“Yeah,” Sydney agrees.  “They really are.  You know, it being a transfer school, where kids had trouble and maybe quit for a bit and came back, people think it’s always going to be rough and unsafe.  Let’s just say I feel safer at school than I did when I was trying to be a sports reporter.  Too many people think that if you’re a woman doing _that_ work, you’re just in it as a gold-digger trying to get close to players.  And the ones that think that, it’s like, why would I even go out with you, know what I mean?"

“I remember even on our shitty Div Three college team, there were guys like that,” Matt says, rolling his eyes.  “I don’t get it.  Never did.  So stupid, like, _dude,_ don’t flatter yourself, you’re not that good _or_ that good-looking.  Anyway, though, my big sister went to college for social work and she thought I’d be good at it.  I didn’t really know anything _else_ I wanted to do, in particular, so I just - went with it, I guess.  Worked out okay so far.”

—

Sydney asks Casey about Matt while they’re having lunch the next day.  “I mean, I don’t date co-workers, but nothing wrong with being introduced to a co-worker’s cute roommate!  Or is he taken? Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“No, he’s single.  Just…um…”

“I’m not his type?”

“Well, I -“

“Oh!  _Women_ aren’t his type?”

“Yeah, I suppose that’s the best way of putting it.”

“Damn it.”  Sydney makes a face.  “I _always_ fall for the gay guys and the straight girls.  It sucks.”

—

“You busy Saturday afternoon?” Matt asks Casey.

“Uh…let me check…” Casey looks at his calendar, which has nothing for next Saturday after his usual morning tutorial session.  “Nope.  Sounds like I’m about to be, though.”

“Yeah.  We’re doing a trip to Broadway for _Hamilton_ because, you know, Eliza was the one who started what became the place I work so they’re doing a thing with the kids and we, uh, need more chaperones.  And since you’re a teacher that means you’re already background-checked, so if you don’t mind…”

“Of course not! Fuck yes, it’s _Hamilton!”_   Casey thinks for a moment, then asks, “Do you need any more chaperones, because I bet Sydney would do it?”

“Oh, that would be _great._ Text her and find out?”

 _HELL YES THERE WITH BELLS ON!_ Sydney responds.  Then, _okay, maybe not actual bells, but you know._

It looks like Matt’s agency has actually bought the theater for the afternoon.  They’ve pretty much set it up so that there’s an adult on each end of each row and sometimes an adult or two in the middle.  Matt and Casey end up on opposite ends of a row, with pretty good seats.  Sydney’s a little farther back, near an exit, sitting next to a woman that Matt obviously knows from work, since when they pass by he says, “Hey Kristy, that’s my friend Sydney who’s going to be sitting next to you, she’s good enough to help us out today, be nice.”

“I’m always nice,” Kristy laughs.

“Except when you’re having a little too much fun stabbing people with flu shots!”

“That’s nice too! It’s why you’re _here,_ dude, instead of sick in bed, you know it’s going around!”

\--

“I like her,” Casey says when they get back to their apartment.  “Kristy, I mean.”

“Yeah, she’s awesome.  Should have thought of setting you two up, sorry about that.”

Right then, Casey’s phone buzzes, with a selfie of Sydney and Kristy looking _very_ cozy, and Casey starts laughing.

“I think you _did_ set her up, though,” he says, once he stops laughing, and shows Matt the picture.

—

They all end up at Cal’s on New Year’s Eve.  

Yes, Sydney and Kristy are definitely _an item_ now, and Sydney’s going on about bringing Kristy to Christmas dinner and being so glad that her parents didn’t freak out that she brought a girl home.  “I told them that I’m bi back when I was in college, but this is the first time I actually was serious about a girl and I was really scared they were going to not be as cool about it in practice as they were in theory.  But they like her so far.  Just Mom seems to think I can call her Kris and not say ‘her’ at all when I talk to, like, my grandma or whoever.  And that Kristy can pretend I’m boy-Sidney instead of girl-Sydney.  And I don’t _want_ to.”

“That sucks.  Well, you can borrow my grandma if you need to.  She was cool with my boyfriend back when I had a boyfriend, so she can be a cool old grandma for you, too,” Matt offers.

“You’re sweet,” Kristy says, smiling.  “Thank you.”

Cassie makes some random comment about how they can _also_ borrow her and Cal's  _kids_ if they need that kind of extended family because she’s just at her wit’s end today.  Something about scrubbing hair dye handprints off the bathroom walls, and floor, and sink…

“So much borrowing,” Matt says in an aside to Casey. “Don’t suppose I can borrow _you_ for a New Year’s kiss, seeing as we’re the only two single adults left? I promise I won’t make it weird or anything, just…”

“Hey, I don’t mind.”  And why would he?  

It’s not a big deal, not a “real” kiss, just a fast peck on the lips followed by both of them collapsing against each other laughing.  

They refill their champagne glasses, and toast everything from _Hamilton_ to hamburgers, and it’s the most fun Casey’s ever had on New Year’s Eve.

 

—

Casey stops into Starbucks on the way home from a late tutorial session.

He sees Mitch, one of his students, which isn’t surprising.  He runs into students a lot here.

“Oh, hey, Mr. Z,” Mitch says, looking around like he’s worried someone will notice.

That’s when Casey catches Matt’s eye.  And Matt stands up, saying “Wait a minute!” in an unexpectedly loud voice.

“Wait a minute,” he says, walking over to Mitch.  “You told me you _worked_ at Brownsville, not that you were still going to _school_ there.”

“So? How do you know?”

“That’s my roommate you just called Mr. Z. If you were a co-worker you’d be using his first name.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t be on Grindr,” Mitch snaps. “I’m an adult.”

“Yeah, but you’re not _twenty-one,”_ Matt snaps back at him. “And I do not date high school students.  Next time, try not _lying,_ okay?”

He walks out, furious.  Casey follows him.

“Wow.  Awkward.  Sorry I kind of wrecked your date, dude.”

“I’m not.  I don’t fucking date teenagers.  Nineteen is still a fucking teenager.”

“Better luck next time, I guess?”

“Maybe.  But these dating apps, I don’t know, you get your co-workers and me? I get your _students._ ”

“I guess we gotta keep at it, pick ourselves up and keep going,” Casey says, though he realizes the hypocrisy of that, since he hasn’t exactly wanted to, hasn’t felt like bothering.

—

It’s not Casey’s finest moment.

He’s - not sure what his problem was, but he’d had a particularly long and awful day complete with having to break up an actual fight in the hall right after the last bell.  Not _his_ students, there was at least that, but a rotten end to the day anyway.  

He stops to pick up a six-pack on the way home, thinks about grabbing a pizza too, then decides against it.  He doesn’t know what Matt wants and they can pick take-out together.  Just another Friday night in the real world.

When he walks into the apartment, though, the first thing he sees is some random dude on the living room couch.  Some random dude on _Matt_ on the living room couch.  Clothes on, but still.  And before he can stop himself, he snaps, “Who the hell are _you?”_ Then half-collects himself and says, “Never mind, that’s not my business,” throws the beer in the fridge, takes one for himself along with some cold leftover lo mein, and goes to hide in his room with them.

Matt’s still pissed off in the morning, not that Casey can entirely blame him.

“So what, am I not allowed to pick up guys, now? It’s - he’s not a teenager, he’s older than _me,_ so I don’t know what the fuck your issue is.”

“I just - I wasn’t expecting to walk into the living room and have a couple dudes fucking around be the first thing I saw.”

“But it would have been totally fine if it was you and Jessie, right? Or you and Sydney?”

“What the _fuck,_ Matt, no, I’m not saying that, and you know Sydney’s got a girlfriend! You set them up!  And before that - she doesn’t _date_ co-workers!  _I_ don’t date co-workers!”

“Fuck this, I’m not - I’m going to Nick’s,” Matt snaps.

The next words out of Casey’s mouth surprise him.  “You going there so he can suck you off or something?”

“It’s not your business, as long as we don’t do it here, right?”  And with that Matt walks out, slams the door, stomps down the stairs.

The thing is, Casey has no clue if Nick’s gay or into guys at all, he’s just - single.  And Matt’s friend.  And Casey knows he’s totally out of line, saying something like that, acting like Matt just wants to spend time with people who are willing to get him off.  Which is wrong.  It would be like saying he was secretly trying to get into Sydney’s pants every time they worked on a class project together or talked about assessment rubrics over lunch.

He doesn’t know why he reacted like that, and it’s freaking him out.  It shouldn’t be about bringing someone over, it’s not like Jessie wasn’t here every break until they broke up.  And, well, he has a Tinder account so it’s not like he has any moral ground to stand on.  Even though he’s not using it, hasn’t since the night he ran into Sydney on it.  He’d thought about trying again after the new year, but then that whole thing where actual high school students were on and he didn’t know it just made it - seem not worth it.

But the guy Casey had walked in on was obviously their age, maybe even a little older.  So maybe he needs to - get off his high horse and start looking?  But no, the thought of that makes him feel even worse.  He’d be a total hypocrite if it was okay for him to meet girls on Tinder but it wasn’t okay for Matt to meet guys on Grindr.  What the hell.

Fuck it.  He texts Sydney, on the pretext of confirming something about their Evaluation Methods class, and then gets to work on that assignment.  He’s too busy for this bullshit anyway.

—

“Uh.  Maybe can you run the GSA for a bit?  I think maybe I’m not the right person.”

Cal just looks at Casey, confused.  “You’ve been doing fine with it, the kids think you’re awesome - why?”

Casey sighs.  “I.  I don’t know, I think maybe I’ve got some weird issue with gay people after all and I don’t want to be a bad influence on the kids.”

“Casey.  The hell are you talking about?”

“Well, my roommate’s been trying to meet someone? And he brought home a guy, they were on the couch fooling around a little bit, it shouldn’t have been a big deal but I don’t know, I was so just - grossed out or something, I don’t even know, it’s like maybe I’m homophobic and didn’t even realize it until I had to _see -_ or maybe I’m actually one of those terrible guys who pretends to be supportive so bi girls will date me and I don’t know, I’ll get a threesome out of it?”

Cal gives Casey a “dude, you’re being _weird”_ look.  “What if I told you I used to have a boyfriend, would that freak you out?”

Casey considers for a second, then shakes his head.  “Surprised, a little.  Not freaked out at all.  But I mean, you and Cassie -“

“Yeah.  Me and Cassie _now._   But back in college?  Had a couple of awesome years together, and then - we weren’t compatible, it had nothing to do with him being a guy, but it was a little like what you told me about you and Jessie.”

“What, he couldn’t stand the city either?”

Cal laughs.  “He couldn’t stand _people,_ mostly.  He wanted a library instead of a house, a really really quiet library.  And you know me, I love having you guys over and - okay.  Back to what we were talking about, because the roommate you walked in on, it’s Matt, right?”

Casey rolls his eyes.  “Only roommate I’ve got.”

“That’s what I thought.  Same guy that’s always part of your weekend plans, that tags along with you for dinner here a lot?  Same guy that was your plus-one to, like, three different weddings after you and Jessie split up? Same guy that managed to find a way to get you both in to see _Hamilton,_ for fuck’s sake?”

“That was - Sydney went too, I was doing him a favor -“

“Same guy that you picked that couch out with, that helped you put it together, and you’re wondering why it weirded you out to see him making out with some random person on it?”

Casey makes a face.  “You think I’m jealous?”

“I think you’re scared of losing him.”

Casey thinks about that for a moment.  Matt’s been his best friend in the city, from the start, but it’s not even that.  He’s got plenty of friends - Cal, Sydney, Tommy, Brock, even Mark and Nick and Kris and the people Matt works with, the list goes on.

He was less upset about Jessie breaking up with him than he was about the fight he’d had with Matt.  He was -

“So I’d have just as much of a problem if he brought a girl home, not that he would but _if_ he did.  Because - oh wow, this is weird.  You think - I don’t know, the whole time I said I was being supportive of Jessie, I was, like, being supportive of _me_ and just didn’t know it yet?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened to someone.  So maybe? What do you think?” Cal asks.  Casey had been scared Cal would make fun of him about this but he’s got his best serious, attentive mentor face on.

“Well, I’m the one that said it.  So.  Maybe?  But - but what do I even do now, I’ve already fucked everything up, how do I not make it worse?”

“I don’t know.  But just a hunch here, maybe things aren’t as fucked up as you think.”

Casey thinks about it.  Cal’s New Year’s party, when he’d agreed to be Matt’s midnight kiss as easily as Matt had agreed to be _his_ plus-one last summer.  

 _Don’t worry, I won’t make it weird._   And the kiss _hadn’t_ made things weird, for Casey.  But it was right after that that Matt had made that account, that he’d started bringing people home.  And that guy Casey had walked in and snapped at…now that Casey thinks about it…

…that guy looked just enough _like_ Casey, about the same height and build, uncannily similar hair…

_Oh._

Now it could be that what bugged Casey out to the point of snapping at a stranger who wasn’t doing anything wrong was the idea of his roommate being not just into guys but into guys who looked a lot like him.  But no.

No, that was, um, definitely not it.

“Oh God.”  Casey drops his head into his hands.  “I just realized.  The random dude I got all mad at?  He, um, he kind of looked like me, and…”

“And?” Cal prompts, gently but obviously holding back a bit of amusement.

“And I didn’t want Matt bringing in someone just like me except that he was also, you know…because then why would he want…me…” Casey trails off, then asks, “So how the hell do I fix it?”

“That, I can’t tell you.  But maybe now at least you know what you’re fixing? And that you aren’t suddenly some weird homophobe who can’t be trusted to mentor the LGBT kids at our school?”

“Fair enough, guess I can keep going with the GSA whatever happens with - me.”

—

So.  How _does_ he fix this?

Maybe he should just…make a Grindr account himself? And then even if Matt doesn’t match with him he can figure out how this works with guys in general.

No.  He doesn’t know what he thinks about guys-in-general, and that seems like a particularly shitty way to find out.  

He doesn’t even totally know for sure what he thinks about Matt.  They work really well as roommates, and they also want to just do stuff together and they didn’t get sick of each other at all in a year and a half.  And, well, _objectively,_ if you don’t just think long hair looks stupid on guys, Matt’s…pretty attractive?

They’re going to have to talk about it.  Somehow.  

—

Tuesday class is canceled, and Casey texts Matt to let him know that he’s headed home and see if he wants anything.  For a minute he’s scared that Matt’s going to take this as a warning to clear out, and, well, he’d deserve that, Matt really does have every right to still be mad.  

 _Pick up some Shake Shack and maybe we watch a movie?_ Is the response, though, which is encouraging.

_You got it.  The usual?_

_Yep._   Then after a minute.  _Syd with you?_

_Nah, I think she wants to spend time with Kris for a change._

_K.  Slap Shot or Goon?_

_Both?_

_Which one first?_

_I don’t care, flip a coin or something._

—

It’s between movies that Casey finally manages to say something.

“Hey, awesome movie night. Thanks for still putting up with me.”

Matt just makes a confused face at him.

“Look, I know I was a total asshole the other night and I’m really fucking sorry -“

“No, it’s okay, I get it.  You’re the one who paid for this couch and I know you’d be pissed off if I wrecked it, and I shouldn’t have made it personal or acted like you were some phobic dickface.”

O- _kay._   Casey could drop it.  This would be the perfect graceful exit.  But fuck it, he doesn’t want graceful.  “It’s not the couch, it’s - I was jealous and I acted like a jerk.”

“The hell are _you_ jealous of, though?  Fire up Tinder and as long as you manage to avoid your colleagues and _God forbid,_ your students -“ Matt made a face. “You’d have girls lining up all four flights of these stairs if you wanted.”

“I - that’s not.  _Fuck.”_ Casey is dimly aware of his fingernails digging into his palms.  “I’m _not_ jealous of you for getting laid.  I’m jealous of _them_ for getting _you.”_

 _Everything_ went silent for a moment.  Unnaturally silent, like the entire city block was holding its breath.

“Casey?” Matt looked over at him, eyes wide, shocked.  “But you’re -“

“-less straight than I thought I was, I guess? I think?”

“I probably sound like one of your kids but…are you trying to say you’re not straight about me?”

“I’m - yeah.”

“Okay.  I guess I’m breaking a New Year’s resolution then, because I’d resolved to just get the hell over you and _find_ someone, already.”

“Does it still count if you found me, so you didn’t _have_ to get over me?”

Matt laughs.  “I like the way you think.  In addition to a lot of other things I like about you.”  He looks down for a moment, then smiles shyly at Casey.  “So…can I kiss you?  I think this time I _can’t_ promise it won’t be weird.”

“Yeah, come here.”  

It’s - good.  Familiar and strange all at once, almost like this is what _should have_ happened on New Year’s Eve.  

“Not _too_ weird?” Matt whispers after they pull apart, like he’s scared of what the answer will be.

“I’m not really used to kissing someone taller,” Casey admits, smiling.  “But I think I’ll _get_ used to it.”

—

Mitch shows up to Saturday tutorial before anyone else.

“Hey, Mr. Z.  I’m…yeah, I’m sorry.  About that whole weird thing with your roommate.  He was _right_ and I was being really stupid."

Casey hadn’t thought about it, not since it happened.  He’d had a lot of other things on his mind.  But still, it was good that Mitch saw it that way.  “Yeah, just - if you lie about your age like that you could still get the other person in trouble.  Like, if it had been _me,_ they might say that I wasn’t moral enough to be a teacher.  So.  Now you know, and you’re not going to put people in a bad spot like that, right?”

“Well, I deleted my account.”  Mitch looks down, blushing, then grins at Casey.  “I think Auston would be pretty mad at me if I kept it now that we’re, you know.”

“Together?” Casey asks.

“Yeah.”

Casey’s not surprised.  

—

“Do you want to, um,” Casey looks down, then right at Matt.  “Do you want to come in for a little while?”

He watches Matt’s face, nervously at first, then relieved to see a bright, beaming smile.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I think I’d like that a lot.”

It’s so strange, the framing they’ve put around this situation, where they still are housemates but they’re also trying to date, and take things slow.  Part of it has been Matt pretending to walk Casey “home” to his room, and good night kisses happening there.  

After about a month of that, though?  Well, Matt had said that it was up to Casey, how fast or slow everything went, and it’s starting to feel like Casey is just putting off the inevitable.  He still doesn’t know if this is going to work, _how_ it’s going to work, but if it doesn’t feel strange or weird or wrong to kiss someone taller anymore, how much worse is it really going to be dealing with a second dick in bed?

Casey at least knows the basics of how that works.  Obviously.  But - but what if he was wrong, what if he really does freak out and lose the person he is closest to in this entire city of millions because in the end he somehow can’t deal with sucking a dick?

Only one way to find out.  Casey closes the door behind them.  Maybe that’s kind of silly, it’s not like anyone else is going to just wander in, but it makes him feel - better, more focused, more like this is how it’s supposed to work.

“We should have our clothes off I guess?”  Wow, that was awkward and unimpressive and it sounded all wrong, but Matt doesn’t seem to mind, since he’s reaching over to deal with Casey’s clothes instead of his own.

Casey can take that much of a hint, can return the favor, kissing and laughing in between kisses as jeans and shirts and boxers end up randomly on the floor and Matt ends up on the bed next to Casey.

This…this works.  It’s good.  It’s not too weird.  The only weird thing so far is how not-weird it is.  Except for the lack of clothes, it’s not different from anything else they’ve already done.  Yet.  

But that “yet” is stuck at the back of Casey’s mind, is getting to him still.

“So, um, I want to blow you first, okay? Just, you know, if it ends up not working for me you don’t get stuck having to return the favor or anything.”

Matt brings a hand to Casey’s face, turns Casey’s head so they’re looking right at each other.  “You _sure_ that’s what you want?  I’m - I’ve said all along I’m not trying to rush you.  If you just want to, you know, keep doing what we’ve been doing, I like what we’re doing now.”

“No, that’s not - you’re not pressuring me, but _I_ , I want to, I need to, I need to be _sure,_ okay?” 

“Okay.  If that’s what works for you then yeah, it’s not like I’m turning _that_ down.”

“I guess - make yourself comfortable, whatever,” Casey says with a nervous chuckle that turns into a real laugh as Matt tries to strike some ridiculous porn-star pose on Casey’s bed.  

“Like what you see?” Matt asks, with a nervous-sounding laugh of his own.

“Yeah. Yeah, definitely.”  Okay, it’s totally _not_ a perspective he’s used to having on a dick, it’s not like he can look at his own at this angle, but - yeah, he can be into this, _is_ into this.  And it doesn’t hurt that Matt is talking Casey through the whole thing, sometimes telling him to move a little or do something a little different, but mostly rambling on and on about how hot Casey looks and how good everything feels.  

And when the words drop to broken whispers between gasps, that’s the best part for Casey, knowing it’s because of _him._

Matt laughs at Casey a little as they’re trading places.  “Guess we didn’t have to worry about you not being into this.”

“Um - yeah.  I don’t think I’m gonna last long.”

He doesn’t, and he’s almost embarrassed.  But Matt just grins up at him and says, “So that means I’d better get you first next time.”

“Next time.  I like the sound of that.”

“ _Lots_ of next times, ‘k?”

“Yeah, definitely.  So, you want to stay?”

“Shower first? We can share if you want.”

“Yeah.  I want.”

\--

Their lease was going to be up in two months, and the renewal paperwork is on the coffee table.

“Should we stay or should we go, now?” Matt sings.

“Why wouldn’t we stay?” Casey asks. “I like it here.”

“Well…we could maybe save money if we got a one-bedroom? It’s not like we really _need_ two, anymore.”

“Would we really save that much, though? By the time we put down first and last and security and paid to get all our shit moved?  And I’m not saying _now,_ don’t freak out, but maybe in a couple years - we could have a foster kid or two in the other bedroom?”

“I love you, and that sounds _amazing,_ but you’re right, not yet.”

“When we’re more settled.  When I have my permanent certificate, you have your LCSW hours done, maybe then.”  Casey’s trying to be practical.  “Something to look forward to.”

“When we’re married, maybe?” Matt asks, then bites his lip as he realizes what he just said.

“Who said anything about being…” Casey trails off.

“I think I just did.  And yeah, I get it’s kind of sudden, but I actually want to? I mean, not yet, but I want us to think about it?”

“I think I want to, too.  But yeah - not yet.”

He can see it, though, in a future that doesn’t seem that far away.


End file.
